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FALL 2014 REPORTTHE EFFECT OF WORK RELATIONSHIPS ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND COMMITMENT
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ABOUT THE SURVEY
The Fall 2014 Workforce Mood Tracker™ survey was conducted by Globoforce® from August 13 to 18, 2014. This is the seventh deployment of the semi-annual survey since its launch in Spring 2011. This edition of the survey was conducted by independent market research � rm MarketTools. The � nal sample of the survey was composed of 716 randomly selected fully employed persons in the United States (aged 18 or older) who are employed at organizations with a sta� size of 500 or more employees. The survey had a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points at a 95 percent level of con� dence.
ABOUT GLOBOFORCE
Globoforce is the leading provider of social recognition solutions, helping companies build strong cultures of engaged employees through the power of thanks. Named one of the Best Workplaces in the US and Ireland by the Great Place To Work Institute, Globoforce is trusted by some of most admired companies in the world to inspire and energize employees and create best places to work. Our award-winning SaaS technology and proven methodologies empower HR and business leaders to take a modern, more strategic approach to recognition programs. The result: measurable business results, quali� ed by increases to employee engagement, retention, and productivity. Globoforce is co-headquartered in Southborough, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland.
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It is hard to underestimate the impact our co-workers have on the experience of working for a company. Those connections can energize or destroy the quality of our work lives. They also strongly impact how we look back at our career and achievements. They inspire and motivate us. They bring us closer to our companies, and they make us want to stay.
Twice a year, we talk to fully-employed workers in the United States to gain insight into their attitudes and perspectives on their work life. In past editions of our Workforce Mood Tracker we have shown the power of connecting people to their peers through recognition. Something that we’ve noticed—but had not yet explored in depth—is the powerful relationships that underlie those work connections, or what companies can do to leverage that shared history of recognition and camaraderie.
This report focuses on those relationships, and in particular on workplace service anniversary awards: what about them is working, and where we have opportunities for improvement. We looked at how service awards are impacted by the changes that technology and social recognition have brought to the workplace. In thinking about the potential of years of service awards, we also thought about what it means to connect with friends at work, how recognition makes us feel, and how companies might build on those feelings to grow commitment and loyalty.
In the � rst part of this survey, we asked about work connections—the friendships and emotional ties that connect co-workers. Then in the second part of the report, we examined the potential impact of those ties on the service milestone experience… � rst getting a sense of where we are and then asking workers how they would like to see their milestones evolve.
These are our � ndings, compiled from 716 survey respondents:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 1. Peer relationships are critical to the modern work experience. As we spend more time
at work, we are investing more, emotionally and professionally, in the relationships we make at work. They have become central to the quality of our lives.
2. Having friends at work increases commitment to the company. Our engagement, trust in leaders, satisfaction, and intent to stay hinge on having friends at work. The more friends we have, the more committed we become to our companies.
3. Years of service awards that include all colleagues yield better results. Leveraging the power of co-worker relationships, and including their stories in the milestone experience, improves the quality of years of service programs.
4. Years of service awards with emotional impact are more e� ective. When service anniversary awards are moving or poignant experiences, they are more likely to inspire employees and encourage them to renew their commitment to the company.
5. Social Recognition® ampli� es the e� ectiveness of years of service programs. Deploying values-based recognition in addition to a years of service program makes the program more e� ective. Recent recognition ampli� es the impact of milestone awards.
6. Workers yearn for a more shareable and meaningful milestone experience. There is room for improvement in today’s milestone experiences. Employees are looking for more shareable service awards that re� ect their memories and contributions.
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1 / Peer relationships are vital to the modern work experience.
Having friends in our organizations is important to our work lives—especially for those of us who have seen the incredible impact that peer-to-peer recognition can have on engagement and work happiness.
Most people know instinctively that co-worker relationships matter a lot—perhaps because most of us have experienced the impact � rst-hand. In order to explore the importance of peer relationships in the anniversary experience, we decided to � rst test that peer relationships are important to begin with.
That is indeed what we found.
We began by asking workers how much time they spend at work and whether they have made friends through work. We found that most people spend more time with colleagues than with their own families (Figure 1) and that 95 percent have made at least one friend through work. (Figure 2) It is surprising to see that people are putting in so much time with co-workers—given the advent of � exible work arrangements, work from home and a more common 30-hour work week.
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FIGURE 1
EMPLOYEES SPEND MORE TIME WITH COLLEAGUES THAN FAMILIES
FIGURE 2
95% HAVE MADE AT LEAST ONE FRIEND THROUGH WORK
Q: How many friends have you made over the years through work?
9%
48%
27%
78%
14%
25%
30-50hrs/wk
50+hrs/wk
0-30hrs/wk
Time spent with family
Time spent with colleagues
18%
16%
29%33%1-5
6-10
11-25
25+
0
5%
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Given this large footprint of co-workers in the day-to-day lives of workers, we looked next at the quality of these work relationships. We found that they carry a rather high level of social capital. 87 percent of workers report that they trust their co-workers (vs. 68 percent who report trusting company leadership). (Figure 3) But we also found that 93 percent of respondents say it was at least somewhat important to them that their colleagues in return have a high opinion of them—with 19 percent citing that they found it “extremely” important. (Figure 4)
FIGURE 3
88% TRUST THEIR CO-WORKERS Q: Do you trust your co-workers?
Q: Do you trust your company leadership?
FIGURE 4
93% VALUE THE RESPECT OF WORK FRIENDS OR COLLEAGUES
Q: How important to you is the high opinion of your work friends or colleagues?
For a work anniversary our only acknowledgement is from an automated system that says, “Today is your (blank) anniversary.” when you clock in for the day.
– SURVEY RESPONDENT
78%
19%
44%
30%
2%
Extremely important
Very important
Somewhat important
Not very important
Not at all important
6%
21%
Yes
Mostly Yes
No
Mostly No
10%
49%
19%
Company LeadershipCo-workers
11%
24%
1%
63%
78% 73%
61%W
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Perhaps more revealing were the next two questions, where we looked at how much emotional capital is being invested in work relationships. We asked respondents if they’d ever laughed so hard they (almost) cried with co-workers (Figure 5) and asked if co-workers had supported them during a hard time (Figure 6). In both cases a strong majority of workers report that they are emotionally invested with their co-workers, in good times and bad.
FIGURE 5
EMPLOYEES LAUGH WITH CO-WORKERS
FIGURE 6
EMPLOYEES CRY WITH CO-WORKERS
Q: Have you ever laughed so hard with co-workers that you (almost) cried?
Q: Has support from your colleagues ever helped you through a hard time?
The qualitative story here speaks as loudly as the quantitative. We found the results particularly powerful in the comments section for this latter question—where respondents shared stories such as:
“My colleagues helped me � nancially and emotionally when my son
was dying of cancer.”
“Two friends at work made my children still believe in Santa because
they bought them some pretty pricey items for Christmas one year
when the kids knew we didn’t have any extra money.”
“I have a friend at work who went through IVF to have a baby. This
friend has been very helpful now that I am going through the same
thing with my wife.”
“I was going through a tough time at home with my parents and I
wanted to quit, but they encouraged me to continue and work harder
to get to my goal.”
“We lost a couple of co-workers to sudden deaths and we really
supported each other.”W
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“There are six of us from di� erent departments who have aging, frail
parents. We discuss each other’s current situation and share resources
for common issues.”
“I had emergency surgery and a co-worker took me to the doctor,
then the hospital and home via the drug store for my meds. Not sure
what I would have done without her! We remain good friends making
happy memories.”
“We are a family in our o� ce. We share the good and the bad, and
sometimes things that we can’t share at home are shared here.”
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The impact of the connections among colleagues is obvious and irrefutable. And employees themselves recognize this. When we asked them to be re� ective, 74 percent agree that they have a shared history of memories and experiences with their current work colleagues (Figure 7), and 89 percent say that work relationships are important for their overall quality of life. (Figure 8)
74% 26%YES NO
FIGURE 7
EMPLOYEES HAVE SHARED HISTORY AND MEMORIES WITH COLLEAGUES
Q: Do you have a shared history of memories and experiences with your work colleagues?
FIGURE 8
89% SAY WORK RELATIONSHIPS MATTER TO QUALITY OF LIFE
Q: How important are work relationships to the quality of your life?
We have a great system in place to provide recognition for years of service—as long the person providing it makes it special!
– SURVEY RESPONDENT
2%
9%
34%
37%
18%
Extremely important
Very important
Somewhat important
Not very important
Not at all important
18%
37%
34%
2%
9%
2 / Having friends at work increases commitment to the company.
Our previous � nding established a baseline that proved work relationships are important to quality of work and personal lives. We then examined the e� ect these rich work friendships have on our organizations, and in particular on the business metrics HR watches most carefully. (There is a reason that one of the key questions Gallup uses on their Q12 survey to determine employee engagement is “Do you have a best friend at work.”)
The results here are somewhat dramatic. We found that those friendships actually seem to strengthen the employee’s emotional contract with the organization as a whole.
There is a signi� cant di� erence in having even just one friend. Those who do not feel connected to their organizations through their co-workers appear to be disconnected from their organizations in every way. Those with many friends are much more deeply connected to their companies, and indeed are almost three times more likely to say they love working there. (Figure 9)
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NO 36%
No Friends NO 76%YES 24%
YES 64%
NO 55%YES 45%1-5 Friends
6-25 Friends
NO 29%YES 71%25+ Friends
Q: Do you love your company?
FIGURE 9
EMPLOYEES WITH FRIENDS ARE MORE LIKELY TO LOVE THEIR COMPANIES
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Next, we looked at questions that impact HR’s goals to create a best-in-class culture. Trust in leaders, for example, is one of the questions the Great Place to Work InstituteTM measures on their surveys. Pride is also a key component they cite in their literature. As the Great Place to Work® Institute writes: “Trust is the de� ning principle of great workplaces — created through management’s credibility, the respect with which employees feel they are treated, and the extent to which employees expect to be treated fairly. The degree of pride and levels of authentic connection and camaraderie employees feel with one another are additional essential components.”
It’s clear that creating a culture that prioritizes and cultivates friendship and emotional ties can go a long way in helping on that journey. Employees with 6 or more friends are twice as likely to say they fully trust their company leadership (Figure 10) and three times more likely to say they are proud of their company and co-workers than those with no friends. (Figure 11)
Q: Do you trust your company’s leadership?
FIGURE 10
EMPLOYEES WITH FRIENDS ARE TWO TIMES MORE LIKELY TO TRUST LEADERSHIP
10%
17%
21%
22%
No Friends
1-5 Friends
6-25 Friends
25+ Friends
14%
27%
36%
50%
No Friends
1-5 Friends
6-25 Friends
25+ Friends
FIGURE 11
EMPLOYEES WITH FRIENDS ARE PROUDER OF THEIR COMPANIES
Q: Are you proud of your company and co-workers?
1-5 Friends
37%
25+ Friends
69%
6-25 Friends
48%
No Friends
28%
Highly Engaged
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Retention is another key metric that is critical for HR. And unsurprisingly, turnover is also strongly impacted by whether or not employees have formed close bonds with their co-workers. Here we measured poachability, by asking if employees would take a job if it were o� ered. (Figure 12) Results showed that the number of friends inversely impacted employees’ willingness to jump ship.
Finally, we examined employee engagement. The number of employees who self-identify as highly engaged runs higher when we ask them directly. But in this case, self-identi� cation can tell us a lot about employee’s attitudes toward their own discretionary e� ort. Again, we see a strong impact on engagement when employees have even one friend in the organization. The delta between those with no friends and those with the largest number of friends is more than 100 percent. (Figure 13)
FIGURE 13
EMPLOYEES WITH FRIENDS ARE MORE HIGHLY ENGAGED
Q: Are you proud of your company and co-workers?
No Friends YES 42% NO 58%
YES 38% NO 62%1-5 Friends
YES 30% NO 70%6-25 Friends
YES 21% NO 79%25+ Friends
Q: Would you accept a new job if it were o� ered to you?
FIGURE 12
EMPLOYEES WITH FRIENDS ARE LESS LIKELY TO JUMP SHIP
3 / Years of service awards that include peer participation yield better results.
Most years of service, or milestone anniversary awards, are intended to impact employee satisfaction, loyalty, turnover and engagement. Traditionally they are a company-to-employee or manager-to-employee based transaction, and involve words of congratulations with the addition of a certi� cate, company merchandise (pins or plaques) or the choice of a gift from a limited selection or plateau. They typically do not invite the participation of peers or focus on the emotional capital built in an organization.
We looked at three areas of impact in particular: job satisfaction and engagement, intent to leave, and the quality of the milestone anniversary itself.
We examined workers who said they had had a milestone anniversary, and compared those who said “Yes, my company gave me an award” with those who said “Yes my company and my peers celebrated with me.”
In all three cases there was a de� nitive impact when peers were included in the milestone experience. We looked at how appreciated overall those employees felt. Workers are 24 percent more likely to feel appreciated if they worked in companies where co-workers had been included in their anniversary. (Figure 14) Likewise, employees who had peer recognition of their milestones are more likely to say they love their jobs and their companies. (Figures 15 and 16). They are also 21 percent more likely to identify themselves as highly engaged. (Figure 17)
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Anniversaries are only recognized with a card and pin mailed to the employees’ homes.
– SURVEY RESPONDENT
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Q: Do you feel appreciated at work?
FIGURE 14
FEELING MORE APPRECIATED
Q: Do you love your job?
FIGURE 15
LOVING THEIR JOBS
Q: Do you love your company?
FIGURE 16
LOVING THEIR COMPANIES
FIGURE 17
HIGH ENGAGEMENT
Q: Which statement best describes you?
CO-WORKER PARTICIPATION IN YEARS OF SERVICE ANNIVERSARIES CORRELATES WITH:
78%
76%59%
78%
78%47%
78%
62%41%
87%63%
Celebrated with Company & Coworkers Celebrated with Company Only
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For the next questions, we looked speci� cally at that milestone experience itself. We see a signi� cant impact on satisfaction with milestones when peers are included. Workers were nearly three times more likely to report that the milestone experience made them feel valued (Figure 18), 26 percent more likely to say that the milestone was a positive experience (Figure 19), and they were more than � ve times more likely to � nd the experience emotionally moving. (Figure 20)
Q: How did your anniversary make you feel?
FIGURE 18
EMPLOYEES FEEL MORE VALUED WHEN PEERS PARTICIPATE IN ANNIVERSARIES
Q: Was your anniversary experience more positive or negative?
FIGURE 19
ANNIVERSARY MILESTONES ARE MORE POSITIVE WHEN PEERS ARE INCLUDED
78%98%
Celebrated with Company & Coworkers
Celebrated withCompany OnlyPositive
70%Celebrated
with Company & Coworkers
24%Celebrated
with Company Only
78%
It made me feel more valued
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One common result companies hope to see from years of service initiatives is employee loyalty and retention. When we asked workers about their intent to stay, those who had milestone experiences are less likely to be job hunting. (Figure 21)
Q: Was your last milestone anniversary an emotional, moving or poignant experience for you?
FIGURE 20
ANNIVERSARY MILESTONES ARE MORE EMOTIONALLY IMPACTFUL WHEN PEERS ARE INCLUDED
No Celebration At All YES 74% NO 26%
YES 66% NO 34%
YES 52% NO 48%
Celebrated with Company Only
Celebrated with Company
& Coworkers
Q: Would you accept a new job if it were o� ered to you?
FIGURE 21
WORKERS WITH PEER-CELEBRATED MILESTONES ARE LESS LIKELY TO JUMP SHIP
6%Celebrated
with Company Only
32%Celebrated
with Company & Coworkers
78%
Yes, I found my milestone moving or poignant
4 / Years of service awards with emotional impact are more e� ective.
In the previous � nding we noted that anniversaries that include co-worker participation are more likely to result in a more moving or poignant milestone experience.
Most of us celebrate anniversaries of some kind in our home lives—whether of our birthdays or other important events—and those tend to be emotionally charged moment where we re� ect on how far we’ve come and our experiences along the way, and we look toward the future. At work, however, traditional milestones rarely include this more human, emotional quality. In fact, many respondents of this survey describe milestone experiences delivered by mail, rubber stamp, and in one case a read out on their time clock when they punched in for the day. They consisted of a message from the company or gift such as a pin, and were devoid of any human component at all.
Given the body of � ndings in this report, our next step was to look more carefully at how emotion impacts the milestone experience, and indeed the experience of working for a company.
We found that when workers report their last milestone as “an emotional, moving or poignant experience” they are signi� cantly more likely to see that anniversary as positive (Figure 22) and three times more likely to say it made them feel more valued. (Figure 23)
But that impact resonates beyond the experience itself, as workers are more likely to report feeling proud of their work (Figure 24) and more likely to report themselves as highly engaged. (Figure 25)
Finally, when we asked workers if they consider a work anniversary a time to re-evaluate their jobs and renew their commitment to the company, a strong majority of those with emotional experiences answered yes. (Figure 26)
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Q: Was your anniversary experience more positive or negative?
FIGURE 22
EMOTIONAL ANNIVERSARIES ARE MORE POSITIVE FOR EMPLOYEES
95%
Unemotional Anniversary
Emotional Anniversary Positive
71%
78%
77%44%
78%
89%58%
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Q: How did your anniversary make you feel?
FIGURE 23
MORE VALUED
Q: Are you proud of the work that you do?
FIGURE 24
HIGHER PRIDE IN WORK
Q: Which statement below best describes you?
FIGURE 25
HIGHER ENGAGEMENT
Q: Do you consider a work anniversary a time to re-evaluate your job and/or renew your commitment to your company?
FIGURE 26
MORE REFLECTIVE AND INVITE US TO RENEW OUR COMMITMENT
EMOTIONAL ANNIVERSARIES MAKE EMPLOYEES FEEL:
81%27%
Emptional Anniversary Unemotional Anniversary
78%
68%47%
5 / Social Recognition ampli� es the e� ectiveness of years of service programs.
In many ways, a service milestone anniversary is a more punctuated and potent (albeit more predictable) form of employee recognition. Like recognition, it is a moment of re� ection on an employee’s achievement and a moment of appreciation where we stop to say thank you.
Often, years of service e� orts are done as stand-alone programs via a single manager and not in conjunction with formal recognition e� orts that tie recognition back to company goals and values. We examined what the di� erence would look like between a stand-alone years of service e� ort, and one that was ampli� ed through frequent, values-based recognition.
We looked at employees with years of service programs and then broke them into two groups—those who had been recently recognized (within the last six months in a formal recognition program tied to company values) and those who had no recent recognition (and no formal recognition program).
We found that recent recognition based on values does have a signi� cant amplifying e� ect on employee satisfaction with the years of service experience. Employees were more likely to report that the experience was positive (Figure 27), and three times more likely to say that it made them feel more valued. (Figure 28) In fact, the impact of recognition exactly mirrored the impact of an emotional milestone experience. They were also more than � ve times more likely to report that the experience had been emotionally moving. (Figure 29)
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On my 5th year, we looked back on when I fi rst started as an apprentice and how I have improved and grown in my job since. It made me laugh to hear the silly mistakes I made when I was green, but it also made me realize and appreciate how patient my co-workers were to take the time to teach me and pass down the tricks of the trade.
– SURVEY RESPONDENT
With Recent Recognition Without Recognition
Positive
95% 71%
78%
66% 19%With RecentRecognition
It made me feel more valued
WithoutRecognition
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Q: Was your anniversary experience more positive or negative?
FIGURE 27
ANNIVERSARIES WITH RECOGNITION ARE MORE POSITIVE
FIGURE 29
ANNIVERSARIES WITH RECOGNITION ARE MORE EMOTIONALLY IMPACTFUL
Q: Was your last milestone anniversary an emotional, moving or poignant experience for you?
FIGURE 28
ANNIVERSARIES WITH RECOGNITION MAKE EMPLOYEES FEEL MORE VALUED
Q: How did your anniversary make you feel?
Q: Was your last milestone anniversary an emotional, moving or poignant experience for you?Q: Was your last milestone anniversary an emotional, moving or poignant experience for you?
6%6%Without
Recognition
32%32%With Recent With Recent RecognitionRecognition
78%
Yes, I found my milestone moving or poignantes, I found my milestone moving or poignantes, I found my milestone moving or poignantYes, I found my milestone moving or poignantY
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When we asked employees for a qualitative reaction to their recent milestones, those who had been recognized report that they are fun, they renew commitment to the company, and they remind them why they work there. (Figure 30) Those who had not been recognized recently had a signi� cantly dimmer view of milestones, reporting that they didn’t care or didn’t notice, or that the anniversary is anti-climatic. (Figure 31)
FIGURE 30
TOP FEELINGS ASSOCIATED WITH MILESTONE ANNIVERSARIES WITH RECENT RECOGNITION
FIGURE 31
TOP FEELINGS ASSOCIATED WITH MILESTONE ANNIVERSARIES WITHOUT RECENT RECOGNITION
40%
40%
46%
They remind me why I love working here
They renew my commitment to the company
They are fun
20%
26%
37%
I don’t noticethem
They are anti-climactic
I don’t careabout them
Only some people are recognized on their anniversary. It makes those that are not all the more depressing.
– SURVEY RESPONDENT
6 / Workers yearn for a more shareable and meaningful milestone experience.
There is a wide gulf between traditional years of service programs—which focused mainly on the gold watch and pin—and modern service anniversary experiences. As employers, our ROI ambitions for YOS are also growing, and we predict that, in the future, few companies will be content to keep programs in place that are not showing business results.
In that spirit, this survey did not simply ask employees about their existing work culture and anniversary programs, but it also invited them to imagine a transformed service anniversary experience, and share with us their thoughts on the changes that are currently revolutionizing the service milestone experience.
We began by getting a sense of the status quo. A full 77 percent of workers surveyed had reached some sort of milestone anniversary at their jobs. And we know from our Summer 2012 Mood Tracker � ndings that 81% of companies have some kind of YOS program in place.
We next set a baseline of expectations, and asked employees if they thought of anniversaries as a time of re� ection. Half of them said they look at an anniversary as a time to re-evaluate their jobs and renew their commitment to the company. (Figure 32)
Next we asked about the reality of what those moments achieve. In our previous research we noticed that a large proportion of employees had reported that milestone anniversaries didn’t change anything for them. In that survey, when we o� ered them a wide range of possible reactions, 51 percent told us that the award had changed nothing at all. This time we decided to cut down the possible answers a bit and look only at whether or not the experience made workers feel valued. 59 percent of respondents saying it changed nothing for them, and only 36 percent felt more valued. (Figure 33)
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Q: Do you consider a work anniversary a time to re-evaluate your job and/or renew your commitment to your company?
FIGURE 32
1 IN 2 EMPLOYEES SEES AN ANNIVERSARY AS A TIME FOR REFLECTION
Yes No
78%
59%
It changed nothing at all
It made me feel more valued
It made me feel less valued
5%
36%
FIGURE 33
59% SAY TRADITIONAL ANNIVERSARIES CHANGE NOTHING AT ALL
Q: How did that anniversary make you feel about your company?
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We turned next to the future, and asked employees what sort of milestone celebration they would prefer. The vast majority of workers prefer the participation of their peers—more than twice as many as any other choice—citing shared memories and congratulations from co-workers and managers as their choice. (Figure 34)
We asked if we could make the milestone experience more meaningful, and 65 percent say shared stories and memories would move the needle for them, while 72 percent like the idea of including a retrospective of their career accomplishments. (Figure 35)
20%
45%Shared memories and congratulations from co-workers and managers
Being mentioned at an event or meeting called for another purpose
Private congratulations from a manager alone
Public congratulations from a manager
Being the guest of honor at an event
17%
13%
6%
FIGURE 34
EMPLOYEES PREFER SHARED MEMORIES AND CONGRATULATIONS
Q: Which anniversary celebration type would you most prefer?
72%65%
65% Want Memories and Stories
from Co-workers72% Want Recognition of Career Accomplishments
FIGURE 35
EMPLOYEES WANT A BALANCED RETROSPECTIVE OF STORIES AND OUR WORK ACHIEVEMENTS
Q: Would a milestone award that included career accomplishments make your experience feel more meaningful?
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We also asked them about the reward portion of their anniversary milestone, and the #1 choice they made was a gift or gift card from a wide selection that would o� er them choice for their reward. (Figure 36)
And � nally, we asked them, if they got a meaningful tribute, whether they would share that tribute with their family—something that suggests both feelings of pride and a more “sticky” lasting, and memorable experience—and 87 percent of them say that they would. (Figure 37)
86% 14%YES NO
FIGURE 37
MOST WOULD LIKE TO SHARE A MOVING TRIBUTE AT HOME
Q: If you recieved a touching tribute from your co-workers, would you want to share it with your spouse or family?
78%
61%
17%
13%
9%
A gift or gift card from a wide selection in a catalog or website
A commemorative gift or company logo item (plaque, pin, trophy)
A gift from a limited selection catalog or website
A commemorative certificate or letter
FIGURE 36
EMPLOYEES PREFER A CHOICE OF GIFTS/GIFTCARDS
Q: Which anniversary reward type would you most prefer?
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If satisfaction at work is dependent on the quality of our connections, then the service anniversary is an opportunity to showcase those relationships, reminding employees why they stay and inviting a renewed sense of commitment.
Profound shifts brought by the technological, mobile and social workplace are transforming milestone anniversaries. In our Fall 2014 Globoforce Workforce Mood Tracker, we examined work relationships—in particular as they relate to service milestone anniversaries and their e� ectiveness. We have seen the impact of highlighting these connections during a service anniversary—a time when many of us are inclined to be most re� ective about our career path.
There is also a strong argument in this data for companies to be more thoughtful about the cultures they are creating, and to actively promote the development of work friendships and emotional connections among employees. An emotionally charged anniversary milestone clearly o� ers a much more potent experience. If your goal with a years of service program is to make employees feel more positive and valued, and to renew their emotional contract with your organization, then tapping into the emotional currents that underlie the experience will help you better achieve it.
When you consider that half of all employees think of an anniversary as a re� ective time where they can re-evaluate their jobs and renew their commitment to the company, it can be considered a huge miss that many companies are not moving the needle to make their employees feel valued by their colleagues.
If you are trying to drive metrics like engagement, retention and build a best place to work, a key place to start will be in encouraging co-workers to establish strong emotional bonds with one another and then including those voices in the years of service experience. As Gallup points out in their 2012 Q12 Meta analysis: “The best managers do not subscribe to the idea that there should be no close friendships at work; instead, they free people to get to know one another, which is a basic human need. This, then, can in� uence communication, trust, and other outcomes.”
CONCLUSION
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And � nally, it is clear that years of service that come from a culture of frequent, values-based recognition are more impactful and positive for employees. Companies should consider running these two initiatives in tandem to gain this amplifying e� ect.
From 716 respondents we uncovered the following � ve � ndings:
#1: Peer relationships are critical to the modern work experience.
#2: Having friends at work increases commitment to the company.
#3: Years of service awards that include all colleagues yield better results.
#4: Years of service awards with emotional impact are more e� ective.
#5: Social Recognition ampli� es the e� ectiveness of years of service programs.
#6: Workers yearn for a more shareable and meaningful milestone experience.
© 2014 Globoforce Limited. All rights reserved.
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